Katie Sowers expected to become NFL’s second full-time female assistant coach
‘The more normalized it is, the better it is’
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Scott Allen.
Katie Sowers, 31, is expected to become the second full-time female assistant coach in NFL history.
After completing her internship as part of the San Francisco 49ers’ Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship, Sowers is expected to join the team as a coach, she announced on her Facebook page.
Sowers worked with the 49ers’ wide receivers during training camp. She had the same fellowship with the Atlanta Falcons, and she later became a scouting intern for the team. She played and coached for the Kansas City Titans, part of the Women’s Football Alliance, before a hip injury ended her career last year. Sowers was also the team’s general manager.
Before announcing the 49ers coaching position, Sowers discussed her role as a woman in the NFL with The Mercury News:
“It’s groundbreaking and all that stuff, but the more normalized it is, the better it is,” Sowers said. “As a female, the more someone can ask me what I do and I say, ‘I coach football,’ the less shock on their faces will mean the better direction we’re moving.”
A short history of female NFL coaches
Sowers is following in the footsteps of Kathryn Smith, the first female to become a full-time assistant coach in the NFL.
Before last season, Smith was hired by Rex Ryan as the Buffalo Bills’ special teams quality control coach. After Ryan’s firing, the new Bills Coach Sean McDermott did not retain Smith on his staff. Smith had worked in the NFL as an administrative assistant and player personnel assistant for 13 years before earning the coaching position.
She did not downplay the historical nature of her position, but she said it was important to focus on excelling at her job rather than discussing gender roles.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Smith elaborated, saying that “there are a lot of women who work in high positions all across sports, and in football.”
“So I think the perception that I’m the only woman interacting with these guys is not accurate at all,” Smith told Sports Illustrated. “The way I look at it is there are woman who hold much more prominent positions that deal with players on teams. More so than the quality control coach. So the guys are around women. There are woman doing great things in the league and in sports in general.
Two years ago, Jen Welter became the first woman to hold an NFL coaching position, when she was hired as a preseason intern to help coach the Arizona Cardinals’ linebackers. Welter’s internship ended after the Cardinals’ third preseason game and she was not hired to a full-time position. Welter, a former collegiate rugby and women’s pro football player, was the first female non-kicker to play in a professional men’s game when she played for the Texas Revolution in the Indoor Football League as a running back.
